


A Day at the Beach with Team Free Will

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Beach Volleyball, Castiel Is Easily Distracted, Jealous Sam, Multi, Rotating POV, Sam Ran Off And I Should... Ooh Squirrelfish!, Sam Suffers the Consequences of Being a Little Shit, Sam is a Little Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:32:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7053787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a case where Team Free Will found fighting each other as much as they were fighting the bad guys, they decide they're going to take a day off and go to the beach to detox.  Things don't get off to a very promising start.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day at the Beach with Team Free Will

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt here: http://dailyspnprompts.tumblr.com/post/145124292242/t-generic-oneshot
> 
> T | Generic | Oneshot  
> Team Free Will at the beach. Cas gets distracted by a fish, Sam gets sunburnt and Dean gets attention from some hot babes but all he really cares about is making sure Cas doesn’t accidently drown himself.
> 
> The most obvious change is that instead of being gen, this is Wincestiel.

Sam did his best to ignore the whistles. Staring was one thing. All he had to do was not look directly at the girls staring at his brother or their boyfriend. Whistling was another. It cut straight through his attempts to focus on something else, such as setting up their umbrella or finding the sunscreen.

Cas at least was trying to help Sam get everything set up. He didn’t seem to realize that he was getting stared at or what the whistles meant. Dean, on the other hand, was checking out the girls. “Have to say, Sam, you did good finding a beach with a good view,” he said.

“Here. Maybe you can get one of your fanclub to do your back.” Sam threw the bottle of sunscreen at Dean’s head and headed for the ocean.

“Sammy!” Dean called after him. “Sam, come back here.”

Sam didn’t turn around. They were on vacation, so Dean had no right to order him around. And the whole reason they’d decided on this vacation was because the three of them were sniping at each other, blowing every little annoyance up until they were constantly at each other’s throats.

 

Dean watched Sam run off and rolled his eyes. “Fine, you deserve what you get then,” he said when Sam didn’t turn around. He started putting the sunscreen on the parts of himself he could reach. By the time he’d finished and was about to ask Cas to get his back, Cas had wandered off. “Great. Well, Sam, looks like you get your wish.”

He sauntered over to the ladies who’d been whistling. “Hey! Looks like my buddies ditched me, would one of you mind doing my back?” He held out the sunscreen.

One of the girls bounced up and took it almost immediately. “Sure! My name’s Bethany. Who are you?”

“Dean. Enjoying your vacation?”

“Of course. Who doesn’t love the beach?” Bethany started rubbing the lotion into Dean’s back.

“Sam, for one. Don’t know what his problem is, but it took Cas saying he’d never been to the beach to convince him to come.” He dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Pretty sure Cas lied. Dude’s been just about everywhere else.”

 

Cas hadn’t lied, exactly. He’d been to beaches before, of course. But never like this. Not “the beach” as humans of this time experienced it. Thanks to Metatron, though, he was familiar with what to expect from movies. Girls in tiny swimsuits, food of questionable nutritious value, sunshine and sand and the occasional shark attack. Not that he intended to let any sharks or other dangerous creatures interrupt their day of fun.

It was supposed to be fun, anyway. The beach was supposed to be a place of romance and good moods and happiness – again, unless a shark attacked. It sounded to Castiel to be exactly what the three of them needed before one of them killed another. But they’d been at the beach ten minutes, and already Sam and Dean had quarreled enough to make Sam storm off.

After a moment’s hesitation, Castiel had chosen to go after Sam. Dean seemed concerned about him, and would likely be right there when Cas convinced Sam to come back. He lost sight of Sam when Sam dove under the surface of the water. Angel powers were on lockdown for anything noticeable, but that didn’t include keeping the salt out of his eyes while he looked for Sam.

Once out in the deeper water, though, Castiel found himself distracted. Instead of looking for Sam, he found himself following a school of striped fish, curious about what they were after.

 

When Sam had swum hard enough to calm himself, he headed back for shore. He owed Dean an apology. Of course, then he saw Dean stretched out on their blanket with a dark-haired girl next to him. Maybe he didn’t owe Dean anything after all.

Dean looked up when he noticed Sam dripping on him. “There you are. Have a good time being an idiot?”

“Shut up,” Sam said. Nope. Dean didn’t deserve an apology. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh yeah. Sam, this is Bethany. Bethany, Sam.”

“Hi!” Bethany chirped, lifting her head to look at Sam. “I was hoping you’d come back, my friend Katelyn wanted to meet you. She thinks you’re gorgeous.”

“Maybe I’ll go introduce myself,” Sam said. “Where’s Cas?”

Dean shrugged, but he sat up. “I dunno, man. You didn’t see him out in the water?”

“No, but I wasn’t exactly looking,” Sam said. “Just… he’s probably fine and I’m being an idiot. But keep an eye out for him, just in case?”

“Yeah, of course,” Dean said. “You goin’ back to the ocean?”

“No, apparently Katelyn wants to meet me, so I’m gonna go say hi,” Sam said. He didn’t think Dean would get the point, but it was worth a try.

 

“Your friend’s kind of an asshole,” Bethany told Dean as Sam walked away.

“Oh, don’t get me started.” Dean scanned the beach one last time for Cas, but like Sam said, Cas was probably fine. He was a big boy, not even he could find too much trouble in ten minutes. He very deliberately did not look in the direction of Sam and Katelyn. He got what Sam was doing, of course. But that was Sam’s problem to deal with, not his. He wasn’t doing anything wrong. “He’s normally a really awesome guy, we’ve just been working too hard and needed some time for fun. The beach? Is fun!”

“Got that right,” Bethany said. “There’s supposed to be a volleyball game in about half an hour. You wanna play?”

Beach volleyball. Girls in bikinis playing beach volleyball. “Not really, but if you want to, I would love to come watch.”

 

Cas watched sadly as the school of fish was disrupted by a hungry larger fish. Most of the striped fish made it away, but the bigger fish managed to catch and eat three of them. Instead of following the now-smaller school, he chose to follow the larger fish. It was silly to get attached, of course. They were only fish, and being eaten was the most likely end for them.

 

One boring conversation with Katelyn later, Sam decided to head over to the volleyball game she’d mentioned. In gym class, he’d been really good at volleyball. It was extremely satisfying to pretend the ball was John Winchester’s head and he was spiking it for leaving him behind yet again. Maybe he could channel that again. He certainly didn’t have any shortage of heads that would make for satisfying spikes. Lucifer. Lilith. He saw Dean walking over with Bethany. First spike was Dean’s head, then.

The group was divided into teams, and Sam found himself on the opposite team from Bethany. Good. Her team won the coin flip and got first serve. Sam started on the back line, so no spiking yet. Instead, he did his best to set up his teammates.

When he rotated up to the net, he turned up the aggression. Two points later, he got his first spike, and shot Dean a triumphant smirk.

 

Bethany ran off when they got to the volleyball net, and Dean looked around. He was kind of surprised to see Sam hanging out. He was even more surprised when he heard Sam’s name called and the director of the game pointed him to a spot on the court.

Turned out Sam was actually pretty good. Not a surprise, although it had to have been years since Sam would have played. Maybe at Stanford? He’d mentioned occasional trips to the beach with his friends from that time. Didn’t hurt that Sam was 6’4” and did a lot of running and jumping for his life. Watching him play was enough to make him forget all about the bikinis. He never took his eyes off Sam.

When Sam spiked the ball and earned his team their first point, he turned and smirked at Dean. Dean winked at him, and rolled his eyes at the surprise on Sam’s face when Sam realized Dean was watching him. He motioned for Sam to pay attention to the game, as the ball was already back in play and Sam was still looking at him.

 

Cas was on a mission. So far, he’d followed seventeen different species of fish, and he was determined to find even more. He’d had no idea a fish’s life was so interesting, swimming around and seeing all the different things in the ocean.

 

Sam’s team killed Bethany’s. Sam accepted the coupon for two free ice creams and turned to head back to their umbrella, but he hadn’t made it two steps before Dean was punching his arm. “Nice. Didn’t know you could even play.”

“Haven’t played for years, but I always loved it,” Sam said. “How come you didn’t play?”

“Came to watch the girls, ended up watching you,” Dean said. “Come on, you know me. I like to watch.”

“Yes, you do,” Sam said. “Speaking of watching, any sign of Cas?”

Dean looked at their spot, then spun around. “No. I don’t see him anywhere. Crap, now I’m a little worried. He’s probably out in the water, but I’m afraid he might be actually out in the water, you know?”

Sam groaned. “Probably got distracted by a fish or something. I’ll go look as soon as I’m geared up. I love that guy, but he can be a little bit… flaky.”

“A little?” Dean said. “I’ll look up on the boardwalk, see if he wandered over that way while we were distracted by the volleyball game. Meet back at the umbrella in half an hour?”

“Sounds good.” Sam watched Dean take off. Found a beach with a good view? Yeah, he really had.

 

Volleyball put Sam in a good mood. Dean added that to the list of ways to deal with Crabby Sam as he headed for the boardwalk. Bethany caught up to him not long after he left Sam.

“He’s good,” she said.

“Yes, he is,” Dean said. “Real good.”

“Still an asshole,” Bethany said. “But he’s good at volleyball.”

“Nah, he’s not an asshole, he just gets that way sometimes after having to deal with me and Cas for too long with no breaks. Speaking of Cas… do you see him anywhere?”

“Last I saw he was following Sam to the water, much to Brooklynn’s disappointment, she was hoping he’d come over with you,” Bethany said. “Why?”

Dean sighed. “Because he can be a little flaky, and has a tendency to wander off. And since he was in the water he’s not gonna have his phone on him, so we can’t just call him and figure out where he got to.”

“He looked like he could take pretty good care of himself,” Bethany said. “Come on, let’s get some ice cream!”

Dean shook his head. “You go on. I need to find Cas.”

 

Cas was following Fish Species #29 when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over and saw Sam swimming beside him. Sam headed for the surface, and Cas followed. Once Sam had caught his breath, he said, “We were worried about you. What happened?”

“I was swimming with the fishes,” Cas said. Sam blinked, and he hastened to add, “Not in a Mafia movie way. More like _Finding Nemo_.”

“Okay…” Sam was laughing. Castiel used to think that was Sam laughing at him, but he’d learned better. “Well, Dean and I got worried when we hadn’t seen you in over an hour.”

“Has it been an hour?”

“Yeah, Cas,” Sam said. “Long enough for me to play and win a game of volleyball.”

“Oh. Congratulations.” Castiel tilted his head. “Have you and Dean stopped arguing, or was it set aside out of concern for me?”

“Ah, I was being stupid. The volleyball game helped me work through it. We’re good.” Sam looked back toward the shore. “I need to get back before I miss checking in with Dean. You gonna go back to the fish?”

“No, I’ll come with you,” Castiel said. “I wouldn’t want to worry you two again. I apologize for getting distracted.”

 

The rest of the day at the beach was exactly what Team Free Will needed. By the time the sun went down, they had built a sandcastle, buried Dean in the sand while Sam and Cas went back out into the water, come back to find Dean had been freed by a girl, who he sent off as soon as Sam and Cas were back, and eaten quite a bit of food of questionable nutritious value.

“I’m exhausted,” Sam said as they started packing up their gear. “Haven’t had this much playtime since I was in college.”

“You’re also bright red,” Castiel observed.

Sam looked at himself. His face got even redder. “Oh, shit. Dean, why’d you let me forget to put sunscreen on?”

“I didn’t exactly let you, Lobster Boy. You threw it at my head and then ran off and wouldn’t come back when I tried to tell you,” Dean said.

“Double shit. Sorry.” Sam closed his eyes and cursed himself. “Okay, so obviously I’m not driving to the motel.”

“I got it. Here, Cas, sit in the back with Sam and get this on him.” He handed Cas a bottle of aloe vera lotion.

**Author's Note:**

> Yay challenge! It's June, everyone! Sunshine and summertime! So let's kick it off with the beach!
> 
> I don't know who the original prompter is, but if you'll send me a message on Tumblr at @rodiniaorzetalthepenquin I'm happy to credit/gift you on this. I'm also happy to accept prompts or requests or questions from anyone.
> 
> Comments are as much fun as playing with fishies!


End file.
